Frostbite prevention!

[littlechickenmama17]

It has been sleeting and snowing these past few days today it is sleeting and has been since this morning. All my chickens and the other animals are in the barn - they HATED being outside and I had to pick them up one by one from their coop to the barn because we didn't want to waste power with the heating lamp. It's way below freezing(like the lower teens) I'm afraid that they may get get frostbite, especially my leghorns and my other large comb chickens... Is there a way to prevent it? If so, what? They don't want to set foot outside and the barn is enclosed, but still! Any tips??

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Everyone always say that ventilation is key. I do have a question. You said something about a heating lamp? What temperature were they experiencing with that? If it was too warm, your chickens might be way too cold without it.

 

[littlechickenmama17]

I... dk Looking back on it, I know now that wasn't a good idea - there was only one heat lamp in a big coop and we decided to put a small one in. This flock is my family's babies and we may have been spoiling more than we should've... But it was still cold inside the coop, so it couldn't have been much different from the outside temp. Sooo don't do that again? And I heard somewhere about bag balm or vaseline for the chickens combs... is that good advice?

 

[21hens-incharge]

Putting anything on the combs traps moisture on the comb. Moisture and cold cause frostbite so no don't do it.

 

[Aapomp831]

Don’t fear cold fear moisture. They will be fine - do not put anything on their combs.

 

[BGcoop]

Absolutely moisture is your enemy not cold. As long as their shelter has good ventilation and is out of the wind they will be fine. We are finally getting above 0° here after several days of night time lows of -20°ish. Birds are doing fine, nothing put on the combs or extra heat added here.
It‘s easy to feel empathy for them and try to baby them, but that has its own set of issues such as what do you do if power goes out and now the birds are acclimated to warmer temps.

 

[littlechickenmama17]

oh okay thanks for the tips everyone! I will not make this mistake again!

 

[Strong86]

I was also worried about frostbite on our roo's single comb. This is our first year with chickens, so we have been hoping the ventilation was good enough and the coop tight enough to keep out drafts. All my reading on BYC has taught me: no heat lamps, and no comb treatment; chickens are very resilient and built for cold - as long as there is ventilation and they are dry! So far, we've had multiple nights near 0 degrees F (single digits at least) and absolutely no issues. We have 2 more nights of very cold temps and then looks like we're in the clear ... can't say I don't worry about them out there.. but they've been fine!

 

[FeatheredRaptor]

I’m in Louisiana and we are experiencing extended below freezing temps for days (very unusual). I have placed straw in the run so they don’t make contact with the ground, and put plastic to wrap the lower part of the run to block wind. Besides having to change out the water due to freezing this has worked out well. No signs of frost bite, not sure of your location but I understand moisture to be their biggest danger with cold weather followed very closely by wind with long cold periods.

 

[Humanbean68]

My rooster got frostbite this week..... the only source of moisture other than when he was outside was the wood shavings under the roost that I probably should have changed a bit sooner but I changed them today and they weren’t super wet.....
They have a choice between a covered, windbreak run and an open area. He’s the only one that got frostbite, but all my hens have small combs.